Abstract 151: Mixed-lineage kinase 4 is involved in the activation of the ATM-NEMO signaling axis in response to DNA damage and confers chemoresistance in triple-negative breast cancer
Authors: Dawid Mehlich, Michal Lomiak, Aleksandra Sobiborowicz, Alicja Mazan, Dagmara Dymerska, Lukasz M. Szewczyk, Anna Mehlich, Agnieszka Borowiec, Monika K. Prelowska, Dominika Nowis, Anna A. Marusiak
Journal: Cancer Research (2022)

Abstract Resistance to chemotherapy leads to high rates of relapse and poor outcomes in patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Therefore, there is a need to identify novel molecular targets that could be exploited to overcome TNBC chemoresistance. Mixed-lineage kinase 4 (MLK4) is a member of MLK family of serine/threonine kinases. Large-scale genomic and transcriptomic data indicated that MLK4 gene (MAP3K21/KIAA1804) is amplified and overexpressed in approximately 50% of triple-negative tumors. We have recently demonstrated that MLK4 promotes the aggressive growth and metastatic potential of TNBC cells. However, the functional role of MLK4 in resistance to chemotherapy has not been investigated so far. In our recent study, we have shown that MLK4 contributes to TNBC chemoresistance by regulating the pro-survival response to DNA-damaging therapies. MLK4 knock-down or inhibition sensitized TNBC cell lines to doxorubicin and etoposide in vitro. Moreover, loss of MLK4 enhanced sensitivity of HCC1806 TNBC cell line towards doxorubicin in a xenograft mouse model. Our data indicated that MLK4 silencing induced persistent DNA damage accumulation and enhanced apoptosis in TNBC cells treated with chemotherapeutics. To further determine cellular mechanisms responsible for the identified MLK4-dependent chemoresistance in TNBC, we performed a quantitative phosphoproteomic analysis of control and MLK4-depleted HCC1806 cells, either untreated or treated with doxorubicin. We found that the doxorubicin-induced phosphorylation of several core DNA damage response components, including ATM, TRIM28 (KAP-1), MDC1 and TP53BP1, was impaired in cells with MLK4 knock-down. These findings were further confirmed using HCC1806 cells with CRISPR/Cas9-mediated deletion of MLK4, which showed markedly reduced phosphorylation of ATM kinase at Ser1981 - a site critical for ATM monomerization and activation. ATM was shown to activate NF-κB transcription in response to DNA damage through the well-established nuclear to cytoplasmic signaling pathway involving NEMO. Interestingly, we observed diminished phosphorylation of NEMO and reduced expression of several NF-кB-associated pro-survival cytokines (IL6, IL8, CXCL1, CXCL6) in MLK4-depleted TNBC cells treated with doxorubicin. These data, along with the additional immunoprecipitation and kinase assay experiments, indicate that MLK4 is involved in the regulation of DNA damage response signaling and ATM-NEMO pathway activation. Moreover, our recent results suggest that MLK4 controls autocrine/paracrine signaling loops in cancer cells and tumor microenvironment (TME) upon treatment with chemotherapy. We currently aim to further determine how MLK4-dependent crosstalk between TNBC cells and TME contributes to chemoresistance and tumor progression. Citation Format: Dawid Mehlich, Michal Lomiak, Aleksandra Sobiborowicz, Alicja Mazan, Dagmara Dymerska, Lukasz M. Szewczyk, Anna Mehlich, Agnieszka Borowiec, Monika K. Prelowska, Dominika Nowis, Anna A. Marusiak. Mixed-lineage kinase 4 is involved in the activation of the ATM-NEMO signaling axis in response to DNA damage and confers chemoresistance in triple-negative breast cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 151.